Iran was already a misunderstood place before this election captured the world’s attention, and as much as the world has now learned about Iran from witnessing these past few weeks, the experience might still lead to an even greater misunderstanding unless we take the time to look deeper. Lost behind the chants of inspiring crowds, the images of bloodied faces, or the grainy chaotic videos, is an Iran much of the world has likely never made the effort to notice.

For a few days I have been looking for images of Tehran that showed it in a more ordinary light, images that could behave as a control group against the ones we have been seeing. I have compiled them in two parts comprising about 60 total images. Some are of places where we have seen demonstrations, but many are just slices of life or images I somehow reacted to. Iran seems like a very modern place with a fascinating culture that somehow straddles two worlds – I have tried to capture that essence with these selections. BTW 12 million people live in Tehran, which is about 4 million more than the population of New York City.

Unless they have an embedded caption, I have added no context to the images so that they will appear for the first time as whatever the eyes say they are. The only thing they all have in common is that they are of Tehran and were taken before the election. I obtained all the images here – if you can help me with attribution please email me

The photos begin after the jump, please give the page some time to load – most enlarge when you click them.

Photographer: {link:http://www.flickr.com/people/rshoraka/}Ramin Shoraka{/link}

CLICK HERE FOR PART 02 (more photos)

**Correction: Earlier I had said the combined population on NYC and LA was 12million – that might be incorrect after looking at some more census data, and trying to figure out the difference between LA City (or metro) and LA County – It is now changed to ref NYC only, which still makes the point I think** Thanks to Jarett for the word of caution

Iran was already a misunderstood place before this election captured the world’s attention, and as much as the world has now learned about Iran from witnessing these past few weeks, the experience might still lead to an even greater misunderstanding unless we take the time to look deeper. Lost behind the chants of inspiring crowds, the images of bloodied faces, or the grainy chaotic videos, is an Iran much of the world has likely never made the effort to notice.

For a few days I have been looking for images of Tehran that showed it in a more ordinary light, images that could behave as a control group against the ones we have been seeing. I have compiled them in two parts comprising about 60 total images. Some are of places where we have seen demonstrations, but many are just slices of life or images I somehow reacted to. Iran seems like a very modern place with a fascinating culture that somehow straddles two worlds – I have tried to capture that essence with these selections. BTW 12 million people live in Tehran, which is about 4 million more than the population of New York City.

Unless they have an embedded caption, I have added no context to the images, so that they will appear for the first time as whatever the eyes say they are. The only thing they all have in common is that they are of Tehran and were taken before the election. I obtained all the images here.

The photos begin after the jump, please give the page some time to load – most enlarge when you click them.

The below is not Tehran but elsewhere in Iran, and man do I want to go there.

CLICK HERE FOR PART 01 (more photos)

**Correction: Earlier I had said the combined population on NYC and LA was 12million – that might be incorrect after looking at some more census data, and trying to figure out the difference between LA City (or metro) and LA County – It is now changed to ref NYC only, which still makes the point I think** Thanks to Jarett for the word of caution